Falcon
Unable to get Clementine off my mind, I decided to cut out of HQ for a while. I went down to Greene’s to grab a drink and see if the same bartender from the other night was working again.
I walked into the dimly lit bar from the warm, bright daylight outside and had to squint my eyes while they adjusted to the drastic difference in light. I could only make out the bar at first, a beacon in the darkness of the rest of the room.
I slid onto a stool right in front, making it obvious I wasn’t interested in hiding from anyone. If Leo and his men were around, they certainly would have seen me, but I didn’t care anymore. I was ready to get it all over with. There were only a few other men sitting at the bar. No one was talking. No one looked up from their drinks. The TV over the bar played the news on mute with captions on in case anyone decided to watch it. Other than that, music played lowly in the background. It wasn’t overpowering yet, but I knew in a few short hours, they would crank the volume to encourage people to drink more.
“Hey, boss,” the bartender said.
“Why do you call me that?” I asked him, figuring business was slow enough that we could actually engage in a conversation this time.
“I don’t know,” he said with a laugh. “It just feels right, you know?” He poured me a glass of whiskey with ice and set it on the bar with my credit card from the other night.
“Oh, hey, how did it go with those ladies the other night?” I asked him.
“They were very thankful for the drinks, and one of them dropped off her name and number for me to give you when I returned your card.” He produced a napkin with a name and number written on it in what looked like dark red lipstick.
“Sadie.”
“Yeah, she said give her a call.”
“I’ll drink to that,” I told him, holding my glass up and nodding.
“Yes, sir,” he agreed, laughing.
I folded the napkin and put it in my pocket for later. I sat forward on the stool while the bartender wiped down a few glasses.
“What’s your name?” I asked him.
“Kellan.” He offered me his hand to shake.
“Falcon,” I told him, “though I’m sure you already know my real name from the card.”
“Right,” he said. He went back to wiping down glasses.
“Hey, I’m the president of Rogue Demons. You know, we’re right down the street in the old firehouse,” I started.
“Yeah, I think we talked about that before,” he said absently.
“Well, shit, before we get too deep, is anyone around?” I asked.
“No. Leo and his goons haven’t been back in since that night. I think they’re up to something,” he said plainly, as if Leo was just common knowledge around here.
“They’re always up to something,” I told him, and he laughed, agreeing with me. “I was wondering if we could talk business, then,” I added.
That got his attention. He put down the glass he’d been cleaning and through the towel over his shoulder. He leaned on the bar to make our conversation as private as it could have been.
“What did you have in mind?” he asked in a way that let me know exactly what he was thinking, and we were on the same page.
“We’re expanding,” I told him. “You seem like you’ve been around for a while, so you probably know I was out of the picture for a few years.”
“Yeah, I remember all that,” Kellan said.
“I’m sure you can guess things didn’t go well for the MC while I was out of the picture,” I continued.
“No, I would imagine not, but I remember seeing some of what went down while you were gone.” He laughed.
It occurred to me that he sure did know a lot for someone who wasn’t actually involved with us, but that could have been because he was part of the life. He worked in a bar where guys like Leo came to handle business. He would have known more than the average bartender, for sure.
“Yeah, it was pretty ugly while I was gone, but I’m trying to get Rogue Demons back to where we were before I went away, and I could use some guys who know the ins and outs of the business. And who ride,” I said, finally getting to the point.
“If you’re offering, yes, I’d be interested,” Kellan told me.
“Good deal, brother. We’ve got a job coming up this weekend. After that, I’ll be back by to talk to you some more.” I finished my whiskey and put the glass back down on the bar. Talking business wasn’t getting my mind off of Clementine. It was all I could do to focus on our conversation.
Yeah, we had a job coming up, a bust. We were going to take down the older brother of the girl who was haunting my thoughts. I needed a way to clear my mind before I went in distracted and got myself and my men killed. I had allowed something that was just part of the job to get the best of me, and now I needed to get her off my mind.
If Kellan knew anything about what was coming up, he didn’t let on. Then again, he wouldn’t have given anything away anyway. He was good, but he wasn’t like those guys back at HQ. Kellan knew what he knew because of who he was, not because of who his boss was. I hoped my guys were doing a good job of weeding those made men out for me back at the old firehouse.
I got up from the bar and pulled the number out of my pocket.
“Thanks again,” I told Kellan as I walked outside, back into the blinding sunlight. I put my shades back on and slid onto my bike.
Before firing her up, I unfolded the napkin and pulled out my phone. I hesitated. I had already done enough damage to Clementine. If I decided to go through with what I was about to do, there would be no turning back. There would be no way to reconcile with Clementine after sleeping with another woman.
Then again, that wasn’t necessarily the worst idea I’d ever had. Trying to date her seriously would have created a major conflict of interest since her brother was one of our biggest rivals and would probably continue to remain so even after being taken down if we didn’t kill him. Killing him would definitely put her out of my reach, so I rationalized that it was probably a good idea to go ahead and cut her loose.
I dialed Sadie’s number on my phone and waited for her to answer.
“Hello?” a groggy voice came through the phone. I remembered days like that, waking up after lunch after a long night of drinking and not being able to get it completely together right away.
I imagined she was probably still lying in bed, her thin body tangled in the sheets. I imagined her subtle curves with ink and piercings in all the right places, just waiting on someone to join her and make the previous night’s party worth it.
I didn’t know which one of the three from the other night that Sadie was, but it didn’t matter really. Either one of them would have been fine. They each looked like a good time waiting to happen.
“Is this Sadie?” I said.
“Yeah,” she croaked. “Who’s calling? And what fucking time is it?” she barked.
“It’s sometime after lunch,” I told her. “And it’s the guy from the bar the other night, the one who paid for your drinks.”
“Oh, it’s you!” Her voice cleared up immediately. I imagined her sitting up in bed and trying to open her eyes.
“Yeah, where are you?” I asked.
“I’m in bed. What does it sound like?” she snapped.
“Sounds like you need some company,” I answered.
“You think so, huh? So, what, you’re just going to come by and get in my pants, huh? Just like that?” I liked her feisty attitude already.
The possibility of getting some help from her to get Clementine off my mind made my jeans fit a little tighter. I reached down and adjusted my jeans, letting my growing desire slide down my leg.
“I’m not worried about your pants, dear,” I told her. “Not that I think you’re wearing any to begin with. But there is something else I’d like to get into.”
“Tell you what, you bring me something for this hangover, and you can have anything you want, baby,” she said, and then she proceeded to tell me her address.
Sadie had a studio apartment a couple of blocks over from Greene’s. I stopped by the street vendor down in front of her building and grabbed her a thick sausage-dog and a soda. I took the food up the elevator with me to her apartment.
As hard as I was getting, I was nervous, too. I started to question whether or not I thought I could go through with this. But then she answered her door.
I stood looking at the one of the dark-haired beauties from the other night. She had hair as black as night. She was tall and thin. She answered the door in an old torn t-shirt and black panties. She wasn’t playing around. She meant what she said when she told me I could have anything I wanted if I brought her food, apparently.
“Thank you,” she said, relieved, when she saw the food in my hands.
She pulled her chipped black nails away from the door and walked back into her large apartment. There was a couch and TV at one end, a bed at the other end in the windows overlooking the street below, a kitchen tucked in the corner, and a bathroom that was little more than a stall large enough to hold the sink, toilet, and tub.
She ran a hand through her tousled hair as she sank down into her old couch. She held her hands up to me for the food as I approached her.
“Nice place,” I said, looking around at the artwork hanging everywhere.
“Thanks,” she said with a mouthful of her food. She grabbed her drink and washed it down.
I guessed this was the difference between the women I normally went after and the woman I couldn’t get off my mind. There was a kind of comfort in meeting someone like Sadie. She had invited me into her apartment without so much as screening who I was to make sure I wasn’t going to rob or kill her. The first time I saw her outside the bar, she greeted me half dressed, half awake, and hungover from another night of drinking and partying.
With Clementine, there was a sense of decorum. She never would have allowed me to see her this way, not that I imagined she wound up like this very often. Women like Sadie didn’t linger in my thoughts. I would see them, maybe even fuck them, and move on. There was something very sensual in the lifestyle people like her lived, but there didn’t seem to be any real ambition in it. There was no thought of tomorrow, next week, five years down the line, or anything like that. While that was attractive, it wasn’t reliable or sustainable.
“Who’s the artist?” I asked her.
“Me,” she said as she finished her food, covering her full mouth as she spoke.
“You paint for a living?” I asked again. I marveled at the lines, the colors, and the shapes she had created on her walls.
“No, I’m a tattoo artist,” she answered after she took another sip from her drink. “Thank you so much for the food. You’re a lifesaver.”
“You’re quite welcome,” I told her with a smile.
I stared into her blue eyes and at her full lips. It would have been so easy to give in to her right then and let her have me on the couch, then on the bed, and anywhere else I could fit her tight little ass in the apartment, but it would have been too easy.
“So, how do you want me to pay you?” she asked with a devious look in her eyes. Her hand was already on my thigh and sliding farther up.
“I’m really sorry, Sadie,” I told her, taking her hand in mine.
“No, no, you woke me up,” she said. “I’m going to get something for my troubles.”
I leaned over and kissed her lightly on her forehead. “Not today. Maybe another time,” I told her. I already had one woman to deal with. I didn’t need another. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing here anyway. I got up and left her pouting on her couch. “You’ve got my number in your phone now. Call me if you ever need anything, and I mean that. Anything.” I tried to say it so she would get the point that my anything went deeper than even sexual favors.
I left her apartment and headed back to HQ. I wasn’t going to be able to distract myself with anything that would actually make the situation more complicated. I had to simply focus on the task at hand and let my thoughts stop wandering.